The Eighth Day of Christmas

"A little to the left."

"No, the right!"

"Um, is this right…?"

"Augh, Rhyme! Move a little, you're steppin' in my eye!"

"Oops, sorry big brother!" Rhyme called, adjusting her weight so she her foot rested on Beat's head instead of his eye. She reached up a little higher, trying to place the star on the top of the tree.

"I can't quite reach it!"

Shiki gave out a quick chuckle.

"You know, Beat, we could just get a ladder…"

"No, this is fine!"

Neku shook his head at his friend's silly shenanigans. Yes… friends. A smile grew over the once-loner's face as he hung an ornament on the tree. He had friends now…

Neku glanced around the thick leafy branches to where the few Reapers were. Yes, there were Reapers here.

It was Joshua's idea, really. After he and Beat got into an argument about whether Real-Grounders or Under-Grounders were superior, Joshua suggested they have a tree-decorating contest to see who was better. Beat of course wanted Shiki, Neku and Rhyme to help him, which Joshua said would be fine if he too could have three Reapers assist him.

Neku shook his head. He could understand why Joshua had Uzuki and Kariya help him; the Reaper pair were okay people in Neku's opinion, but Joshua's third choice baffled him.

Why would he ask Sho to help him? Neku asked himself as he watched Josh's worst enemy ponder the Reaper's nearly completed tree. He had asked Joshua the exact same question, and the Composer simply responded that he thought Sho would do an interesting job. (Neku didn't know why Josh dodged responding when he asked why he didn't ask Hanekoma for help instead, but Neku eventually decided it wasn't any of his business.)

Josh saw Neku glancing towards him, and he smiled and waved at the boy. Neku shook his head— here it was supposed to be a contest of Joshua against Beat, and Josh wasn't helping decorate the tree at all… Actually, Uzuki and Kariya weren't helping either— well, Uzuki was decorating, but seemed to find it more enjoyable to drape the tinsel over her partner rather than the tree.

Neku groaned. Of course. Sho's obsessed with anything "beautiful", so Josh knew he could just sit back and let him nemesis take over… I just can't believe Sho isn't piling trash on the tree or something…

"There!"

"Great job, you two!"

Neku turned back to the Real-Ground tree, and saw that Rhyme had finally succeeded in placing the star on top of the tree.

"Congratulations." Neku applauded sincerely. He seriously thought Beat would eventually give up and allow Neku to retrieve a ladder for him.

"How do you like that, Josh?" Beat crowed. "We're almost finished!"

"So are we."

Beat stared is disbelief at the perfectly decorated across the room.

"How… wha…?" He stuttered, then glanced back at his tree. The lights were on crookedly, a few of the ornaments seemed almost to be falling off, and in other places they were all clumped together in a huddle.

"Almost finished…" Sho muttered to himself, then… dropped a trash can lid on the side of the tree.

Everyone else sweatdropped.

"Oh, good thing I made a trip to the dump before I got here, I have some better decorations over here," Sho stated as he dragged over a bucket of odds and ends and proceeded to trash the tree.

Everyone else turned to look at Joshua is disbelief. The Composer gave a shrug.

"Oh well. You win, Beat."

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Author's Notes: Yup, this is in another of the alternate universes, so it can be considered canon! XD